Mario Kart Tour and 9 other Nintendo games we want on our phones

Nintendo has announced a new Mario Kart for mobile. Here’s what we know so far: It’s called Mario Kart Tour, and will be released before March 2019. And, er, that’s it.

Still, we’re excited. Mario Kart revels in fun, colour, tight controls, and cartoonish power ups, rather than greyness, and grim and gritty ‘realism’.

But will it work on mobile? Notable kart racers for iOS and Android are in short supply. Angry Birds GO! is pretty but dull. Sega’s Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed was better, but noticeably cut down from handheld versions, and is dead on iOS 11.

With a mobile Mario Kart, we want the good stuff: loads of tracks, great touchscreen controls, gamepad support, online multiplayer (but no forced online access), and a pricing system that doesn’t make you want to punch your own face off. Our fear is we’ll get one-thumb on-rails freemium Mario Kart.

We’ll find out soon enough. And in the meantime, here are four Nintendo games you can already play on your iPhone, iPad or Android device – and five more we’d love to see.

NINTENDO GAMES TO PLAY ON MOBILE TODAY

SUPER MARIO RUN

Super Mario Bros, distilled to one-thumb auto-running? Sacrilege! But it works. Instead of being reductive, the limitations force you to focus on timing and path-finding, especially when trying to grab every coin. The varied, smart level design helps, too.

It’s not all great news – the requirement for an internet connection to play is bafflingly stupid. Otherwise, this is a fun, polished Mario game for mobile, even if it’s not a ‘proper’ Mario game.

ANIMAL CROSSING: POCKET CAMP

Animal Crossing seems a good fit for mobile, given that it involves quick repeat trips to an endearing gaming world. In the mobile version, you rock up at a camp ground, aiming to make friends, swap goodies, and craft your camp.

There’s a whiff of freemium and busywork about the place, though – the game’s keen to have you spend cash to speed up build times and the like. But for fans with patience, this is a decent enough Animal Crossing lite.

POKÉMON GO

We know this isn’t technically a Nintendo game (it’s by Niantic). But when you think of Pokémon, you think of Nintendo. More importantly, Pokémon GO gets you off of your bum.

The game has you hunt Pokémon using AR, roaming the streets and then lobbing balls to capture the critters. You then train your Pokémon up and have them fight to secure Pokémon Gyms, found at local landmarks. It’s certainly a more entertaining way to get a bit fitter than RunKeeper.

NINTENDO GAMES ON MOBILE WE’D LIKE TO SEE

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

Zelda games are great. Whether you’re bumbling about a blocky world in The Legend of Zelda on a NES (or the Nintendo Classic Mini: NES), or constantly getting killed in Breath of the Wild, the mix of puzzles, action, and adventuring is intoxicating.

Oceanhorn has a good go at doing Zelda on Android and iOS, but we want the real thing. Well, as long as it’s ‘proper’ Zelda, and not some hacked-to-bits freemium rubbish.

F-ZERO

Wipeout had funky icons and a cool soundtrack, but F-Zero was the true king of futuristic racers. Right from the original, dizzying and very flat SNES incarnation, it was always a bit more bonkers than its rivals – and we loved it for that.

We know this kind of game works on mobile – witness Zorg’s AG Drive. It plays things much straighter than F-Zero, though. We want to tilt and tap our tiny craft around deranged looping tracks created by Nintendo.

WARIOWARE

Whichever incarnation of WarioWare you think of, it would work great on mobile. There’s the original GBA release, with its chunky graphics and single-screen tap-based minigames. And then there are the sequels, full of super-fast motion-based challenges.

But there’s the time element, too. A few rounds of WarioWare would be ideal fodder to squeeze into odd moments when you’d otherwise be gawping at Facebook. At least as long as Nintendo didn’t ruin everything with paywalls, loot crates, online-only play, and timers for extra lives.

RHYTHM HEAVEN

You get rhythm action games on smartphones – Guitar Hero, Planet Quest, and superb platform/stealth/rhythm mash-up Beat Sneak Bandit are standout examples. But Nintendo’s quirky Rhythm Heaven series combines barely contained chaos, breakneck pace, inventiveness and head-bobbing rhythms in a way we’ve not yet seen on mobile.

The sequels are great, but we’d give our back teeth to get an English translation of the original GBA Japanese-only Rhythm Tengoku – or even just the adorable and furiously addictive Bunny Hop challenge.

GAME & WATCH

If you’re old, your first Nintendo handheld was probably a Game & Watch. These basic LCD games mostly involved belting left and right to catch/avoid objects, the action gradually speeding up until your inevitable demise.

Many mobile games offer similar simplicy in terms of controls and challenges, but lack the charm, nostalgia factor, and Nintendo flare found in the likes of Parachute and Octopus. Also, plop a Game & Watch on top of a modern smartphone and it’s the same size as the display. Clearly, this is fate and has to happen.